I am very intrigued by the idea of a summer camp exhibit.  I, too, am a
die-hard camper and counselor.  The camping tradition in the US must say
something about the ways that Americans "get in touch with nature"
(although some camps have little, if anything, to do with the outdoors).
The unique songs, foods, and generational traditions do seem to have
something to do with tribal culture.  I was a third generation camper at
my summer camp, where my grandparents had attended some 40 years
earlier.  I wonder if the American Camping Association has ever given
this any thought?

On Tue, 24 Oct 1995, Barbara Weitbrecht, Smithsonian wrote:

> The "s'more" thread does bring up the obvious question: is anyone
> out there collecting information on "summer camp culture"?  I was
> a camper for many years, and a camp counselor after that, and the
> songs, food, stories, games and other traditions of summer camps are
> a source of endless fascination to me.  Each camp has its own oral
> tradition, passed from counselor to camper and from the older
> campers to the younger.  It's the closest I've ever come to
> understanding the "feel" of a tribal society.
>
> Along with the classic s'mores, we had a singularly repulsive
> dessert called "banana boats".  Take a banana, cut a slit along
> one side through the peel and the meat of the fruit, stuff the
> slit with squares of Hershey bar, wrap with foil and set in the
> coals of the campfire until the banana is mush and the chocolate
> is melted.  Eat from the foil-wrapped peel with a spoon.  It
> tasted better than it sounds, fortunately.
>
> We also had an oral tradition of an invisible mischievious
> animal named "Tadger", who would swing through the trees in
> "death-defying life-leaps" and play pranks on the campers.  Years
> later I learned that the Tadger stories were from a children's
> book, but I never actually saw a copy.  Can anyone supply a
> citation, or reports of other Tadger-sightings?
>
> If some museum out there would like to add a department of
> summer-camp studies, I would love to be one of the curators.  :-)
>
> --
> Barbara Weitbrecht
> National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
> [log in to unmask]
>